Cheers and Jeers

Every Saturday on its editorial page, the Gloucester County Times cheers those who make our area a better place in which to live and jeers those whose actions merit derision.

- CHEERS: To dual refreshment from lemonade. Gloucester County was awash last weekend in Alex’s Lemonade Stands, which benefit the childhood cancer-battling work of the foundation named for the late Alexandra Scott. Stands went up across the county for Lemonade Days. In Woolwich Township, Mario Carpino, a Stratton School first grader who is being treated for brain tumors, set up one of the stands. Thanks to all who mixed, poured or purchased.

- CHEERS: To a flood of ideas. A novel federal grant is utilizing the resources of Rowan University engineering professors and students, as well as their 3-D virtual reality modeling capability, to find remedies for repeated flooding in Camden, where Admiral Wilson Boulevard has defied previous “fixes.” Now, Vineland’s flood-prone East Grant Avenue area will also be covered by the grant.

- CHEERS: To more news from Rowan. Its tuition and fee increase for 2011-2012 weighs in at a slim 3 percent, a refreshingly manageable amount, given the recent acceleration in these costs at nearly all colleges. With Rowan’s presidency in flux, it’s a good start for Ali Houshmand, its interim president.

- JEERS: To Medicaid ripoffs. Last Saturday, when the Times' lead story was a pending $300 million cut to New Jersey’s Medicaid budget, mainly by sharply limiting who can sign up, there was also this gem on an inside page about the former head of an adult day care program who was sentenced to three years in prison for Medicaid fraud: “Salvatore Chillemi, 50, of Washington Township, was also ordered ... to pay $147,076 in fines and penalties.” Before we close off health access for the poor and seniors who need residential care, let’s do a better job of going after large-scale fraudsters. The state caught one, but there are many more out there.

- CHEERS: To a costume party. The Cropwell Stagecoach Questers of Cherry Hill, a group devoted to preserving historical artifacts, has donated $500 worth of Revolutionary War gear to Gloucester County’s Ann Whitall House, including a complete girl’s costume, and hats of the time.

If you know of someone or something you would like to nominate for a cheer or a jeer, please send the information to Cheers and Jeers, Gloucester County Times, 309 S. Broad St., Woodbury, NJ 08096.